 Fire Emblem Warriors at three hopes. A bit of a cringey name right there, but I get it. They want it to be obvious that it is linked to the same universe as Fire Emblem Three Houses. Now, this is a spin-off title from Fire Emblem with a different gameplay style from the mainline series, this being a Musou slash Warriors style game, meaning that you fight in real-time action combat against hordes of enemies at once. I was originally looking very much forward to this sequel of Fire Emblem Warriors, but I have to say that this one is different. It's just like when I reviewed Fire Emblem Three Houses, I said it was very different because I feel like both of these games, they are deviating away from what they are supposed to be, with all this extra stuff added that only ends up interrupting the flow and pacing of a game in this genre. What I'm trying to say is that it feels like it is trying to be several things at once, which often works in games, but maybe not in a Warriors-like game. This game was just released now in June 2022. It is developed by Omega Force and Intelligent Systems, published by Nintendo. I have a discount code for you guys. Eshoten on eshagaming.com gives you 10% off all Nintendo eShop cards. Story! You play as a male or female mercenary who is actually defeated and brought back to life by a weird being called Arval. You come across the three leaders of the land and you end up joining one of them, hence the name Three Hopes, because there are three leaders of the land. And I have to say, the story is a very traditional one. It's warfare, war talk, politics. And I am not playing this game for the story, have to be honest. The story doesn't intrigue me. There are a lot of support conversations, which go deeper into everyone's personalities, day to day lives and hopes and dreams. Some of the characters are just stiff and crunchy when they talk. I mean, they say so many weird things. Whether I am resting, enjoying leisurely pursuits or simply in contemplation, I always apply all my energy to the task at hand. Some of them are very proper when they talk. I am not finding a lot of humor. And the little humor that I have seen, it does not stick with me. But like I said, story wasn't my selling point. I am playing this game for that gameplay. Gameplay. Now, this is a hack and slash game with two primary settings. You have the main hub area and you have the actual battlefields. The battle takes place in several war maps made out of enemy bases and forts for the most part, where you get to actively play as one of your teammates at any given time, with the option to swap between them, essentially making you able to play as anyone. Also, you can give your troops orders from the map, like defending or attacking certain areas, certain forks or certain NPCs from this map, which will be necessary. So this game is tactical. It's not just run and gun hack and slash boom, bam. You have to pay attention to your objectives. Who needs defending, which forts needs capturing, et cetera. Each battle can take anywhere between five and 15 minutes, I would say. And this is the actual part of the game I am enjoying the most, the actual battles. This is why I'm playing this game for the Muso part, the warrior style gameplay part. There are also side missions to tackle. So there's sometimes many things to keep track of at once, which is the whole fun factor of any Warriors game, if you ask me. For the most part, it is all manageable. And I find it the most fun to swap between my characters a lot. There are so many characters in this game, all of which you can get to know through these unlockable character conversations that you get when you increase their friendship levels, which you can do through fighting, training, doing chores together, gift giving, and these date-like events. Out of the three houses that you can choose in the beginning of the game, you get a certain roster of characters. Though you can later in the game choose to recruit some of the other teams to join yours if you want to. Now, in the camp area of the game, you can walk around and do all sorts of management, like there is a blacksmith, where you can level up and improve your weapons. A trainer, where you can train your troops, level them up with gold even, and change their classes, if you so would like. Anyone can be anything, so this is great to experiment with. A lot of customization options, that's for sure. You have the chore master, the supply master, and the battalion person, just so many people. So many things that you can do in this camp area. I use the fast travelling system when I'm in the camp, though, to quickly do all the things that I need to do, only to get back to the fighting as soon as possible, because I feel like there's just a lot, maybe even too much to do and keep track of. I just want to fight, you know? I have to say, there's so many unnecessary screens, though. So many level up screens. You can turn off the basic level up screens, but still, so many screens and pop-ups and dings and dongs. And even hitting the plus doesn't really skip much, I feel like, even though the pluses as a skip down there. But beware of hitting plus too much, though, as on the gold level up screen, I accidentally hit plus too many times, which means skip, but in the next second, it means reset all levels on this character. And guess what happened? My petrol fell down to level zero from level 27. Now this is a highly complex game, if you want it to be. It is not lacking in any game mechanics, let me tell you that much. This game has content. It has a lot of systems and customization options and just all this stuff that you can delve really deeply into. I have to address, in the gameplay section, that a Muso Warriors game like this can be known for, and I'm sure you've heard about this, can be known for repetitiveness. It is the thing that goes across all of the games in this genre. It can be repetitive. You do a lot of the same stuff. You hack your way through everything. You capture a fort, you capture a fort. And even though the classes add some variation to the gameplay, like playing a mage, someone on horseback, swords, axes, bows, etc. It is pretty much the same and it can be repetitive. Now, I don't find it repetitive, but that depends on what kind of gamer you are actually. I tend to like Muso Warriors games. And if you do too, you know exactly what to expect from this title. Well, graphics and performance. Now let's start on the battlefield. In my time with this game, I didn't feel the scenery varied much. The enemies are pretty much brainless, standing stillers, and it is not a graphical masterpiece by any means. However, the actual characters look great, the fighting animations are cool, and the frame rate is acceptable for the most part. But in the camp, it is a somewhat different story. You know I don't know what happened in the camp area of the game. It feels like a different game sort of. There's something off with the camp area. It looks like a 2012 game in 2022, in its graphics. It just doesn't look like a 2022 game at all. Not even to mention the rather huge and distracting hub elements to taking huge chunks of the screen in this area. There's just something off with this area. The loading screens are short and sweet though. Can really appreciate that. But I mean it is what it is. It is after all in the battlefields that the graphics and performance matters the most, and the battlefields they are for the most part okay, but I would love to see more variety. Music and voice acting I guess. I have no real complaints on neither the music nor the sound effects of Three Hopes. The sound work is excellent. The voice actors varies in their quality of their performances though. For example, I like the main protagonists voice acting a lot, while maybe others were more mediocre. But at least there are a lot of voice acting in this game. I have played so many games where there's just minimal voice acting, where I wish it was more of that. I feel like there is plenty in this game, both in English and in Japanese, should you like so. It sounds very fire emblemly, and I've always just liked and enjoyed Fire Emblem Music and sounds. Just fire emblem me. Verdict. I think it is fun and I like it. There are some things still though that I liked more from the first Fire Emblem Warriors title, like for example the World Map. I much more like the simplicity of that, and the story was actually more captivating to me also in the first one oddly enough. Now this is a must have title for fans of either series I feel like, both the Fire Emblem series and the Warriors series. And if you have played a game just like this before you know exactly what you're getting into, and if you have never played a Warriors Musou game or anything like that, why not start here. It is personally pretty much an 8 out of 10 game, because I knew that I would like this game, as I like the first one so much. There's plenty of things to do. There's even an in-game achievement list that I haven't even looked properly at yet. But I could also say that if you find the first game for cheaper I would maybe say go for that one. I think I like the first one more still. This is also good. But you know that is just me. Probably just me. Could be nostalgia talking also for all I know. It's a really fun and satisfying Musou hacky slash why a button mashing game guys. You mash the why button so much. Now don't forget my code ISHA10 on ishagaming.com and get 10% off the entire Nintendo eShop essentially. Listen to my podcast and please hit like on my video that really helps out. Thank you so much for watching and I will see you later.